A man being questioned about the fatal stabbing of Dubliner David Spain in the early hours of St Stephen’s Day will appear at Bray District Court today at 10.30am, charged in connection with the investigation.

The 26-year-old victim was fatally injured when a row broke out outside a party in his parents’ house in Rathsallagh Park, Shankill, south Dublin, just after 5.15am.

A friend of the deceased was also attacked and stabbed. However, he survived and remains in a critical condition in St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin.

Gardaí believe Mr Spain and a number of others had gone to the aid of the man now in hospital after he had been stabbed as part of a long-running dispute over a small unpaid debt.

However, Mr Spain was himself stabbed by the attacker, and he and his injured friend were taken by ambulance to the hospital at about 5.30am, where Mr Spain was pronounced dead at 8am.

The man who was arrested was in his 30s and was known to his victims. He was arrested in the hours after the attack. He was detained at Shankill Garda station under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, allowing for his detention for up to 24 hours without charge.

However, because his detention was suspended overnight to allow him time to sleep, he was still being held last night before being charged, after gardaí liaised with the DPP. Thurles incidentIn an unrelated incident, a 22-year-old man was stabbed in Thurles, Co Tipperary, in the early hours of yesterday morning. He was attacked on the entrance road to the Móin Na Cíbe housing estate.

The man is in hospital in Clonmel, where his condition is described as stable. Gardaí are working on a definite line of inquiry and were last night questioning a suspect in his 30s at Thurles Garda station.